[steplock]

"...the king reputed to have put a quarter of the Island population to the sword in his attempt to convert them to Christianity."

Is this the only thing this particular king was noted for? Or is there a specific reason to have this statement as the second sentence (HIGH PROFILE) in the article?

IMHO, typical of socialist/secularists - anything to denegrate Christianity at every opportunity.

.

[Oztrich Boy]

Would you also get irate on behalf of Pol Pot if you read:
"...the ruler reputed to have put a quarter of the national population to the sword in his attempt to convert them to Communism."?

Inquiring minds want to know

[derlauerer]

Is this the only thing this particular king was noted for? Or is there a specific reason to have this statement as the second sentence (HIGH PROFILE) in the article?

A Google search on the name "Caedwalla" turns up just over 1000 references, one of which is this page, which says, in part:

"The history of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the island is unclear. Documentary and archaeological evidence indicates that the earliest settlers in Kent and the Isle of Wight were distinct from those of other parts of south-east England. Bede recorded that these people were Jutes, and not Angles or Saxons. The initial phase of settlement took place in the late fifth or early sixth century. The island appears to have remained independent of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until the middle of the seventh century when Wulfhere, King of Mercia, captured it. Wulfhere promptly gave it to one of his vassals, Aethelwalh, King of the South Saxons. It has been suggested that several villages, such as Arreton, Brading, Carisbrooke and Freshwater, were founded during the reign of Aethelwalh. In 686, the West Saxon Caedwalla killed Aelthelwalh on the mainland. Caedwalla then invaded the Isle of Wight, exterminated the inhabitants and settled it with his own followers from the mainland. From that time the island became an integral part of the kingdom of Wessex."

Since another page, also found in the same search, shows that Caedwalla only reigned for two years, the answer to your question is very likely "yes".

[VadeRetro]

IMHO, typical of socialist/secularists - anything to denegrate Christianity at every opportunity.

Yeah! What a cheap shot! So he killed one lousy quarter of the population of the Isle of Wight. And he's famous for that?

[Varda]

I agree with your post. This is just a slam on Christinaity. Bede's "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum" doesn't say that Caedwalla was converting the people by the sword, it says that he was exterminating them.